Toni watched the school grounds from her balcony, arms crossed against the early morning chill. From this height, Queen's Crest looked almost beautiful, majestic, even. But beauty, she'd learned, had teeth.
Below, guards had returned. Uniformed men, different from the school security team, now patrolled the grounds. Their badges bore no school insignia. These were federal.
Her phone buzzed. A message from Amara: "Meet me. Rooftop. Urgent."
Toni didn't respond. She was already moving.
---
The rooftop was silent except for the wind. Amara stood at the far end, back to Toni, hair billowing like a storm flag.
"This place is falling," Amara said without turning.
Toni approached, careful with her steps. "Then let it."
Amara turned. There were dark rings beneath her eyes. She held out a sheet of paper. It had a scan of something older, yellowed at the edges.
"The original draft of Project Providence. Before the edits. Before the sugarcoating."
Toni read in silence.
The paper listed names. Dead students. Transferred students. Expelled girls who were never seen again. There were notes in the margins and they're handwritten by someone called A. W. Toni's fingers trembled.
"Who is A.W.?" she whispered.
"Adanna Williams," Amara replied. "One of the founders. She disappeared in 2010."
"And you think she..."
"No. I know. I saw the tapes. Adrian has them."
Toni clenched her jaw. "How much more of this rot do we have to dig through?"
Amara met her gaze. "Until the last bone is unearthed."
---
Meanwhile, Adrian was nowhere to be found. Since the release of the redacted documents, he had vanished from classes, assemblies, and even the boy's quarters. Some believed he was taken. Others thought he was in hiding.
Only three people knew the truth: Toni, Amara, and Ralene.
Adrian was underground.
Literally.
Beneath Queen's Crest was a maintenance bunker used during the early military regimes. Obsolete now, it had become Adrian's temporary base of operations. There, he combed through old records, hacked into the school's system, and decrypted decades of administrative deception.
One night, Ralene brought him a box.
"Found it hidden in the east library's floorboards," she said.
Inside: cassette tapes, a worn leather diary, and a medal bearing Queen's Crest's crest but with a sword piercing the crown.
Adrian stared. "This... this was never on the school emblem."
Ralene nodded. "It was the original one. Before the rebranding."
They listened to the tapes.
Girls crying. Testimonies. Some barely audible. Others interrupted by screams, static, or sudden cuts.
Adrian felt bile rise.
Ralene didn't flinch. "Keep going."
---
Back on the surface, the tension tightened. Parents were demanding answers. The school board claimed ignorance. But a private forum leaked online showed board members discussing hush payments, fabricated transcripts, and planned "failures" for students deemed problematic.
Toni and Amara confronted Headmistress Nwachukwu during a mock assembly.
"If you still believe this place deserves to stand," Toni said coldly, "then you deserve to fall with it."
Nwachukwu remained seated. Her face was pale.
"You think you know everything," she murmured.
"No," Amara replied. "We know enough."
---
By dusk, a new document surfaced.
A spreadsheet. Names. Dates. Medical records. Psychological profiles. All linked to the students marked for Project Providence.
At the bottom:
"Batch Alpha Initiated. Batch Beta Pending."
Toni's name was on Beta.
So was Ralene's.
Amara was under Alpha.
Adrian had never been on any list.
---
That night, under the cold glare of the moon, the three of them made a pact.
And it wasn't for revenge nor for fame.
But to make sure Queen's Crest never swallowed another soul again.
The war wasn't over.
But now, at least, they had names.
They had proof.
They had each other.
---
End of Chapter Twenty-Six.